If you ask someone what the best barbecue sauce on the planet is, you are bound to get some very different answers.
Our preferred barbecue sauce is engrained in us from a young age. From the thick ketchup variety that made Kansas City famous to the vinegar and little else that North Carolina touts as the best around, you will have a hard time coming up with a consensus. So what do you do if you want to know which sauce really is the best in the world? Hold a contest! The American Royal has been a part of Kansas City since 1899, and is the home of the World Series of Barbecue every October. Along with hosting the largest barbecue contest in the world (setting a record in 2013 with 562 total teams competing), the Royal is also home to the biggest and baddest barbecue sauce competition around. Each year hundreds of sauce makers enter their best creations in a contest that includes these categories: mustard bbq sauce, tomato bbq sauce – mild, tomato bbq sauce – hot, vinegar bbq sauce, and specialty bbq sauce. In the end though, it all comes down to the overall results, with each sauce going head-to-head regardless of category.
In a field that included 260 barbecue sauces, only one sauce can win, and Firebug Grill’n Sauce Hot came out on top with a whopping 176.5944 points out of a possible 180! Created by Kansas City chef Shannon Kimball, Firebug bbq sauces take a step forward with a classic tomato style barbecue sauce that infuses food with layer upon layer of fresh flavor that is ready to kick up anything you put it on, from french fries to ribs!
Congratulations to Shannon, the crew from Firebug BBQ and every team who entered the American Royal Barbecue Sauce Contest. We’ll see you all next year!
